A keen contest among the BJP, SP and BSP is on the cards for the coming 2017 assembly election to Dhanghata. Though the BJP candidate from the Sant Kabir Nagar Lok Sabha constituency, Sharad Tripathy, had won the seat in 2014 by defeating his nearest rival and then sitting BSP rival Kushal Tiwari, the former had trailed behind the latter in the Dhanghata assembly segment by 1254 votes.